The history of ‘Groutfit Day’

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(Gina Lopez/ Daily Collegian)

Late one Saturday evening, when the hours had crept into the early morning of the next day and the grass was covered in dew, an idea created by a group of six friends was born.

The idea was “Groutfit Day.” A day made up to celebrate exclusively gray outfits.

It all started when one of the friends arrived at the party in a mostly monochromatic gray outfit, thus deemed a “groutfit” – a term used to describe all-gray outfits. While the wardrobe choice that night was by chance, the friendship of these creative minds was nothing but destiny. For the rest of the evening, everyone changed into their best ‘groutfits’ to match Becca Raskob, the trendsetter.

After that night, these said friends became the official founders of Groutfit Day. They decided the official Groutfit Day would be Nov. 18 because it falls on the last Friday before Thanksgiving/Fall break – thus everyone deserves a little extra comfort and relief from the daily outfit fatigue built on the anxiety of scrambling to find something to wear in the morning.

Nov. 18 is a day where you don’t have to decide because the founders did the work for you. Your comfort is their concern.

Because their identities have remained a secret up until this point, I feel it’s important to mention the famed founders which include: Raskob (junior political science and French double major), Olivia Servaes (junior biology major), Jonathan Melhorn (senior communication major), Zoey Sloate (senior sustainable food and farming and marketing double major), Emma Kelly (senior operations and information management major) and Sophia Hall (junior biology major).

That night, along with some fashionable choices, a Facebook page was made in order to spread awareness about the event and its importance in expressing unity for the love of the color gray. They invited all of their friends from the University of Massachusetts in the hopes that they too would see the potential in Groutfit Day.

Later that morning when they arose from their slumbers, the list expanded to everyone they’d ever met while attending UMass. And after that it continued to grow.

“We have a history in our friend group of ramping up our little inside jokes,” Melhom said.

“This one we took to the world,” Raskob added enthusiastically and dramatically.

All of the founding Groutfit members are in some way affiliated with the campus comedy group “Thursday Night Live” on campus, which explains their interest in creating such a satirical holiday.

The rest is history. The original founders like to say Groutfit Day is completely out of their hands, but will that ever really be true?

The most remarkable thing about the whole story is that other schools have also picked up the idea of Groutfit Day, making their own pages for the cause.

The members forget the chronological order of it all but it is said that someone from Connecticut picked it up at their school, then American University, followed by Oregon and Syracuse before several others. Most of the other universities are celebrating the phenomenon on the same day, as there is a friendly encouragement to all band together on the same day on the founders’ Facebook page.

The whole Facebook fandom is actually quite notable because the event was created and still remains a private event, therefore in a way it’s invite only and will not pop up on peoples feeds randomly.

The Groutfit Facebook page gets quite a bit of love on the regular, with groutfit memes designed by students, pictures of their preparation processes and chummy commentary.

However, as with all things great, there’s always going to be haters, trolls and groutfit doubtfuls. Regardless of the essence, the founders handle any and all commentary with their best “customer service responses,” coupled with slightly serious sign offs as if every post is an email from a coworker.

Continuing to advocate the lifestyle behind the Groutfit each and every day, all members wore monochromatic gray outfits to our meet up.

“I live for monochrome,” Kelly said, who arrived fashionably late in her gray ensemble.

With all of the groutfit excitement buzzing in the air, the group members are thinking of having a mass meet up. The tentative location is outside the Student Union at noon.

Staying active on social media this week is really key for prepping for Groutfit Day as there may be some tricks up the members’ sleeves in regards to other outreach efforts.

Last but not least are some Groutfit Day preparation tips from the group:

If you don’t have grey shoes, do what you can

Try and wear the same shade of grey

Save all grey clothes for that day

Lend extra grey clothing to those in need

Dress a statue on campus in grey so they can be part of the fun

All grey things are welcome: hats, cats, socks and shoes

Watch only black and white movies or Grey’s Anatomy that day

Invite all friends to Groutfit Day

Take snapchats only in the grey filter

Hydrate (it’s easy to forget with all the excitement)

Be mindful of the dying bee population – a great concern of the Groutfit Day founders

“We don’t endorse or recommend anything besides wearing all gray,” the group said.